Workers at a Hog’s Breath Cafe in Perth have blown the lid off the restaurant chain’s practice of paying workers under-award wages.

In February, United Voice and Socialist Alternative member Melinda Joseph circulated an open letter to co-workers at the Kelmscott Hog’s Breath outlet where she is a waiter. The letter notified Hog’s Breath staff that the WorkChoices-era agreement they are paid under has wage rates lower than those prescribed by the restaurant industry award.

Melinda and her co-workers figured out that most of them were worse off than the award by an average of around $60 a week. Their agreement provides no penalty rates for weekend and late night work and offers no compensation for the removal of penalties. Also scrapped from the Hog’s Breath agreement are overtime payments, split shift allowances and annual leave loading.

If Hog’s Breath workers win award conditions it would form an important step towards improving the lives of hospitality workers more broadly.

In a now familiar story in the Australian hospitality industry, Hog’s Breath management have retained a dodgy workplace deal that was pushed through under the Howard government’s anti-worker WorkChoices laws. The laws were repealed in 2008, but many of the agreements remain in effect.

With the backing of the hospitality workers’ union, Kelmscott Hog’s Breath staff have applied to the Fair Work Commission to terminate the agreement that covers them. As Melinda wrote in her letter:

“If no one challenges working below minimum conditions, [the conditions] will continue to persist and thrive. But if Hog’s Breath workers win award conditions it would form an important step towards improving the lives of hospitality workers more broadly.”

 A majority of workers at the Kelmscott outlet have signed up to support the application for award conditions. A section of the staff are also trying to make contact with workers at other Hog’s Breath cafes in Perth. A trip to the Joondalup Hog’s Breath provoked an angry response from management there, who insist that their workforce is “happy” with below award wages.

With more than 80 outlets across Australia and New Zealand, Hog’s Breath is a self-described “Australian success story” and boasts about being one of the largest fully licensed theme restaurant chains in the country.

Unsurprisingly, the official Hog’s Breath story omits mention of the chain’s practice of fair dinkum exploitation. Along with Grill’d and Subway, Hog’s Breath was one of the first companies to lodge bare-bones greenfields agreements when WorkChoices came into effect in March 2006. 

The franchise bosses need to get their hog snouts out of the trough and pay up to avoid a humiliating public battle about their practice of ripping off young workers. “WorkChoices was meant to be abolished after Labor won the 2007 election”, Melinda told Red Flag. “The Liberals have declared WorkChoices ‘dead, buried and cremated’.

“Almost a decade down the track, these antiquated laws are still dictating the wages and conditions of many workers in Hog’s Breath Cafes around the country … We’ve decided to take a stand – for ourselves and other workers, now and in the future.”

Sign the petition in support or head to the Facebook page for more information.